I WON!!!

I am a winner! I never win anything but I guess that just changed. (Army) Wife at http://www.morethananarmywife.com/ had a giveaway and I won! Go check out her blog and her cute little boy who is only a couple weeks younger than Grace. And a big thanks to Lil' Mootz and Carsley for drawing my name!!

Blog worthy?

I really haven't had anything blog worthy lately. We have had a usual week with nothing really going on. But we have been staying busy! We skipped the gym on Friday so we could run errands that morning and have the afternoon to just hang out at home.

Monday was my birthday and we had dinner at Chili's with Kelly and Maggie. They had still not brought me my birthday dessert so when they brought the dessert Kelly ordered she pointed across the table and told the waitress it was my birthday. A few minutes later they show up with a kiddie milk shake and sang the birthday song to Grace. Yes, they thought it was Grace's birthday!

We went to the gym several times, went to the pool on Thursday and Saturday, ran errands and went grocery shopping. Grace is getting another tooth and she has been having a runny nose so that hasn't been fun.

This week is going to be pretty boring too. I have some things I need to get done like finish clearing out the guest room. My mom will be here NEXT week! And my dad will be here the week after that!

We are also trying to get a plan together for the travelling we want to do. I think we are going to try to see mainland Japan either the last weekend in August or sometime in September. Then we want to see Australia so we are thinking a cruise might be our best bet there. And then instead of going to Tokyo Disney and DisneySea right before Grace turns 2 we have decided to try to go to Hong Kong Disney. I heard it is great for younger kids!

Daddy's little fan

Grace doesn't mind being on her tummy as much now that she can scoot.... backwards!

Lions and Tigers and Bears!

So maybe we didn't see any lions or tigers or bears but we did go to the zoo. And might I just add that the only animal we did see was this weird frog lizard thing in a fish tank. This morning we met up with Kelly and Maggie at the Zoo. I bought an annual pass so we can go several more times! We explored all 3 floors of the museum. We played with all sorts of magnets, watched robots dance, put on costumes, played with some musical instruments, and lots, lots more! Here are a few pictures from our fun day.

Well, maybe we DID see a lion!!

Grace is SO big!

Or maybe very small

Fun with Maggie!

Today we had a very special treat. Maggie came over to play!! We started the day off by meeting Kelly and Maggie at the pool and had a blast. After lunch Kelly brought Maggie over for a few hours. We dumped ALL the toys on the floor and played with the beach toys and the baby doll. But I think the most fun thing was our "Tea Party"

New Stuff!

First off, Grace had a big new milestone today (and, no, that tooth has not made its appearance yet). While on our way home from the gym today Grace was talking away. She is quite a vocal little girl! But today she had a few new sounds. At first I was hearing a-ba a-da and then a-da-da! Since then she has said DA-DA quite a bit. She even managed to say it quietly while on the phone with her Daddy and then said it a few times while we were out to dinner with a friend.

Secondly, I posted yesterday about the toys Grace got from Toy's R Us. Here is a video of her playing with one of the toys she went crazy over at the store.

Lastly, I realized I have never posted pictures of our new house. I took some shortly after we moved in but the lighting wasn't good, all our pictures hadn't been hung, and Grace's room wasn't finished. Well, I never did go back and take pictures again and I never did take pictures of the bathrooms, our bedroom, or the guest room. But I will at least post the few that I have.

Living Room

Looking from the dining room to the entry area

More of the living room (also taken from the dining room)

Dining Room - I thought I had a picture of the kitchen but I guess I don't.

Grace's Room - before anything was hung on the walls. She was asleep in her crib when I took

this picture.

Our huge balcony

The other side of our balcony

The view

Beautiful!

You can see another island in the distance

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Grace LOVES mirrors! Every single time she sees a mirror she gets very excited. One of her favorite things to do is stand on the vanity in the bathroom and talk to herself in the mirror.

Today after church we went for our usual lunch at Chili's Too! with Kelly and Maggie. Grace fell asleep and every time we try to get her out of the car while she is sleeping she wakes up as soon as the door opens, so we took a drive. We drove to White Beach and the water was beautiful blues. Then we decided that since Grace was waking up we would head over to Toy's R Us. Grace had a BLAST! She played with several toys on the shelves and we ended up buying her a couple.

Mom - we will have to go back when you get here because you would love to watch Grace play with the millions of toys they have there! You could actually birthday/Christmas shop!!!

Dinnertime FUN!

Grace was being pretty hyper during dinner and having fun so I got the camera out to video it. She was eating squash which is one of her favorite foods.

4th of July on Okinawa

We had a great weekend! We made some major progress on clearing out the guest bedroom so my parents will have a place to sleep while they are here NEXT month. We got our AFN dish and decoder so that we will have a FEW channels to watch on TV. I found someone who will install it for less than all the companies that advertise in the phonebook.

On the 4th we met up with our friends Kelly and Maggie and Kelly's parents who are visiting for pizza at Pizza Hut and some Starbucks then we headed to the flight line for America Fest. The weather was so much nicer than last year. Maybe that is partly because we waited until about 6:30 to go out there? Last year we went out around 2pm and we were miserable! We some lots of planes, listened to Gary Sinise and the LT Dan Band play, and then watched the fireworks display. Grace fell asleep in her stroller but we woke her up to watch the fireworks and I think she was glad we did. Her eyes were so big as she watched each one! Grace got to wear all 3 of her 4th of July outfits - 1 on Friday, 1 on Saturday, then the dress on Sunday!

We had a bit of a camera fiasco.The batteries were dying so I was only turning on the camera when I wanted a picture and then immediately turning it back off. Well, when it got time to take pictures of fireworks the memory card was full. I guess that is what I get for having over a month worth of videos on it. But here are some of the pictures we did get!

The girls - Me, Grace, Kelly, and Maggie

This is what Dustin works with

And does anybody recognize this?

It is the C-130 - what Papa used to fly!

All ready to go!

Happy 4th of July

6 Month Photos

Here are a few of my favorites from Grace's 6 month photo shoot. We went to Toguchi Beach with Amanda from http://www.footsteps-photography.com. I think she did a really good job!!